Thirty and Thriving

Today I'm saying good bye to my twenties. I'm not a mess over being 30, not by a long shot!  I feel better about who I am and what I'm doing now than I ever have. 

That's not to say the last 10 years haven't been good to me, because they have! 

Over the past decade I:

met and married my husband,

made some amazing girlfriends,had some awesome adventures and

rode some great horses

 and of course I can't forget Miss Bella!

I don't think that's too shabby and I'm anxious to see what the next couple years has in store!  Hopefully it will be more of the same!

Another Weekend. Another Adventure.

Have you noticed a trend?

I'm not real big on sticking around home, especially during the summer!  There's just too many fun things going on to be cooped up in the house.  And summer provides the perfect backdrop for things like traveling, horse shows, and day drinking!  Pepper in some gal pals and I'm a happy camper.

Speaking of day drinking, isn't Little Big Town's song the perfect summer anthem?

Tomorrow I'm on the road again.  Five of my girlfriends and I are heading down to Carbondale to partake in some college reminiscing and wine trailing! 

The wineries of southern Illinois really came to life while I was in college at SIU.  Some are quaint and homey, others are quite grand!  In college (if I remember right... but with all the wine some of the memories are a bit hazy) I spent at least one day a week parked on a patio with a bottle of wine or pitcher of sangria.  Since graduating, Matt and I try to go down at least once a year! 

Technically, I may go more than Matt...

 

We've rented a cabin smack in the middle of all the winery goodness and I have created what may be the. perfect. itinerary!  And it just so happens to be the weekend before I celebrate the THREE-OH! 

Yep, I'll be "thirty, flirty and thriving" come Monday!  Name that movie.  

Okay, I'm off to work knock out a few more items from my 30 BY 30 list before I run out of time...

Have a great weekend!! 








 

Escape To So ILL

Last week, I hot footed it down to southern Illinois to spend some time with my friend Susan.  I had some time off of work that I had to use and decided heading even just a few hours South might be good for my soul!

I got into town late Thursday night, but after spending 3.5 hours in the car I was totally cool with just vegging out on the couch.  Susan, her hubby TJ and I spent the rest of the evening chatting. catching up and figuring out our plans for the weekend.

Friday morning, Susan and I headed to town to do some shopping at a local boutique, Eccentrics.  Susan's photography business partners and outfits the models in cute clothes from Eccentrics throughout the year.  The boutique owner, Lauren, is a local gal who in the last few years has opened this great clothing store.  Susan had nothing but wonderful things to say about Lauren, the store and the clothes!!  Naturally, I was really excited to go and check it out!  When we walked in I was so distracted by all colors, patterns and prints that I bee-lined it to the racks to see what I could find that I couldn't live without!  A few minutes later, Lauren came around the corner to greet us and my mouth literally fell open in surprise... Back in college, Lauren and I worked together at Applebee's!  What a small freakin' world, huh?!?  Thinking back, it all makes sense though.  All those years ago, and now too, Lauren was always so stinking trendy and her owning a boutique really shouldn't come as a surprise!

Source

After purchasing some new Spring and Summer staples, Susan and I headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Harbaugh's Cafe, for a late lunch.  Harbaugh's has been open since 2000 and serves some of the best breakfast and lunch in Carbondale.  The restaurant itself was furnished piece by piece as owner Laura Harbaugh, hit up garage sales to outfit her new place.  The walls are covered with art and knick knacks that only add to the atmosphere!  If by chance you're ever in Carbondale, Harbaugh's is located just across from campus and is most recognizable by the polka dotted awnings and the line of hungry patrons lined up out the door and down the street.  Trust me, waiting in line is worth it!

Once our bellies were full, we decided it was high time to hit up some of the local wineries that southern Illinois is becoming famous for!  Blue Sky Vineyard was our first stop, naturally.  In my opinion, Blue Sky never disappoints.  The wine is good, the scenery is gorgeous and you can literally lose track of time while you're there!  I speak from experience.  Susan and I enjoyed a carafe of our favorite red wine while we soaked up the sun on the patio. 

After Blue Sky we navigated the winding roads of the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail and ended up at Alto Vineyards.  Alto recently built a brand new building that offers a large tasting room and second story patio that overlooks a small pond and the vineyard. 

Our favorite wine at Alto is their Dawg House Red which features SIUC's mascot, the saluki!!  We drank a bottle and took some home too!

After closing down leaving Alto, we headed back to Susan's.  Our original plan was to make supper, but when we realized the chicken was still frozen solid we had to resort to Plan B.  Plan B was 17th Street Bar & Grill.  17th Street is another local favorite that is always top notch! 

On Saturday, Susan and I spent running errands at places like Home Depot, Hobby Lobby and Party City.  We grabbed lunch out at the Longbranch Cafe and Bakery and then rented some movies.  Because we are mature adults we ended up with Saving Mr. Banks and Frozen!  After just getting back from Disneyland, I loved 'revisiting' it in Saving Mr. Banks.  I also really enjoyed the sisterhood aspect of Frozen and how Princess Anna was relate-able and modern compared to other princesses.  We ate and drank at home Saturday night and crashed somewhere around midnight.  Disney movies will wear a girl out!

Sunday morning I helped Susan get squared away for a photo shoot she had later in the day and then I hopped in the Jetta and drove home. It doesn't look like we did more than eat and drink the weekend away, but I swear we did!  And to be honest, isn't that paired with good company what great weekends are made from?!?

It's Was A Girls Only Weekend

For the last five years a small group of girls, mostly from my sorority, I went to college with have gotten together annually.  There are 11 on the 'official' invite list, but getting 7 of us all there is generally considered a success!  Our little group is spread as far north as Wisconsin, south as Carbondale, east as Champaign, and as far west as St. Louis, MO., so it's really quite a feat to get us all together.  One day though!

Our first event was at Vintage Illinois near Utica, Illinois. 

2008

Vintage Illinois is a community wine festival where you can sample lots of wine from local vineyards, listen to music and of course, hangout with friends!  It was here we decided that we'd make this an annual event.

The only stipulation is we go somewhere that has local Illinois wineries!

So far we've been to Utica, Grafton, Galena, and Peoria.  This year we decided that since it's a milestone year... Getting a group of women together for five years in a row is a milestone, we'd go back to where it all began...

Carbondale.

My friend Susan was the host for this year and we all stayed at her house, she even kicked her husband and dog to the curb for us!.  I headed down Thursday mid-day and the rest of this year's group got into town Friday afternoon.  That night we went up town and had some AH-mazing barbecue at 17th Street Bar and Grill.  This restaurant is seriously good!  If you're ever around one, give it a try.  The Murphysboro one is the original and it's by far my favorite.  After we ate we went to check out the street dance.

Saturday, after everyone had surfaced, we ate brunch, went for a walk and then got squared away for hitting the wine trail!  Around 1pm our Escalade limo showed up. Ya that's how we roll! 
Honestly if you're going to do the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, getting a DD is the way to go!  Throughout the day we captured lots of great photos of the group and might I say, we all look smokin' hot! 

2012, We've come a long way baby!

The first winery we went to was Von Jakob.  They have a large tasting room and just recently started brewing craft beers, in addition to their wines.  They have a beautiful back deck that accomidates a bunch of people.  The view isn't half bad either!  We sat there for quite a while and chit-chatted about life, love and the old days!

Our next stop was one of my favorites, StarView!  This location is great because they have a pond, a huge white dog named Berkley, and they allow you to bring your own snacks in.  Bonus!  Snacks are VERY important to have on any wine trail!  You've gotta counter all that wine with food.  I may or may not be speaking from experience here! 

We also stopped at Owl Creek, but no pictures.  Sorry!

Our last stop was Blue Sky.  They have a beautiful tasting room that resembles an Italian villa, large umbrellas to sit under that over look the pond, a stage for live music, and best of all, great wine and sangria!  One quick warning, this place is ALWAYS busy!  Always.  But the white sangria is so deelicious, it's really worth it!

Our group shot at Blue Sky was an ode to the old Olan Mills portraits.

The rest of the evening, as you can imagine, turned into a bit of a hot mess after 6 hours of drinking!   But there will be no pictures to protect the offending parties!

Sunday morning everyone was moving pretty slowly.  We all bugged out around noon, headed North, East and West.  I'm already looking forward to seeing these girls again next year!  Where are we headed?

Chicago, baby!